Ohio Republican Tied to Abramoff Abandons Re-election Bid

By PHILIP SHENON

Published: August 8, 2006

Representative Bob Ney, an Ohio Republican entangled in the corruption scandal centered on the former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, announced Monday that he would abandon his bid for re-election.

The Justice Department has signaled for months that criminal charges against Mr. Ney, and possibly other Republican members of Congress and aides who were close to Mr. Abramoff, were only a matter of time.

''Ultimately this decision came down to my family,'' Mr. Ney said in a statement announcing his decision not to seek a seventh term. ''I must think of them first, and I can no longer put them through this ordeal.''

The Justice Department's investigation of Mr. Abramoff's lobbying operation has left Republicans on the defensive in a year in which the control of the House could come down to a relative handful of races. In withdrawing two weeks before the deadline for replacing him on the ballot, Mr. Ney gave his party a better shot at hanging on to his seat, political strategists said.

Mr. Ney is the latest political casualty of the Abramoff case. Mr. Abramoff pleaded guilty in January to conspiring to corrupt public officials, including members of Congress, and is cooperating with prosecutors.

Two former top aides to Tom DeLay, the former House majority leader, have also reached plea agreements with the government in the case. Mr. DeLay, who is under indictment in Texas in an unrelated case, resigned from Congress this year partly because the Abramoff case had made him an even bigger political target for Democrats.

Mr. Ney's former chief of staff pleaded guilty in May to conspiring with Mr. Abramoff to provide Mr. Ney with illegal gifts, including a 2002 trip to Scotland that allowed the lawmaker to golf at the fabled course at St. Andrews. Another of Mr. Abramoff's guests on that trip, David Safavian, a former White House budget official, was convicted in June of lying to investigators about his relationship with the lobbyist and the circumstances of the trip.

The influence-peddling scandal appeared to claim another prominent victim last month when Ralph Reed, the former Christian Coalition leader, was defeated for the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor of Georgia. His opponent highlighted the millions of dollars in lobbying fees that Mr. Reed had received, directly or indirectly, from Indian tribes represented by Mr. Abramoff.

Mr. Ney has insisted that he was ''duped'' by Mr. Abramoff and that he never took official actions in Congress in reaction to gifts from the lobbyist.

But a timeline established by federal prosecutors and investigators for the Senate Indian Affairs Committee showed that Mr. Ney had taken actions in support of Mr. Abramoff and his clients, including placing information into the official Congressional record, at times when the lobbyist was soliciting his clients to make large campaign donations to Mr. Ney.

As recently as last week, Mr. Ney, 52, insisted to aides that he would not resign from Congress, even if indicted, and that he would press on with his re-election campaign. So the timing of his announcement Monday took some Republican leaders in Washington by surprise.

Party officials said House leaders had been pressuring Mr. Ney for months to step down from Congress for the good of the party, to allow a strong Republican candidate to emerge in time for the November elections.

It was not clear if the timing of the announcement was related to an Ohio state law that requires a primary election if a Congressional candidate withdraws from the race or dies more than 80 days from the election -- in Mr. Ney's case, Aug. 21.

If he waited until after that date, Mr. Ney might have been forced to keep his name on the ballot over his objections, a situation faced by Mr. DeLay in Texas. State and federal courts have said that Mr. DeLay cannot withdraw his name from the Texas ballot, and on Monday the Supreme Court refused to overturn those decisions.

Ohio electoral officials are expected to announce a date for a new primary soon.

Joy Padgett, a Republican state senator from Mr. Ney's district, announced Monday that she would seek to replace him on the ballot. She told reporters there that Mr. Ney had telephoned her over the weekend with news that he was pulling out of the race and wanted her to run. Republican officials said she had also been contacted by Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the House majority leader, and encouraged to enter the race.

Although he won 68 percent of the votes in the Republican primary in May, Mr. Ney had been expected to face a difficult race in November.

The Democratic candidate, Zack Space, a municipal official from Dover, said in a statement that voters should be wary of a replacement candidate who had been ''handpicked'' by Mr. Ney.

''Bob Ney represented the culture of corruption in Washington,'' Mr. Space said through a spokesman. ''We need new priorities and new leadership.''

The scandal had complicated fund-raising for Mr. Ney at a time when he needed to pay growing bills to criminal defense lawyers. His financial disclosure forms show that in the first three months of the year, Mr. Ney's campaign treasury had to spend thousands of dollars more than it had raised, largely because of legal fees. Mr. Ney's withdrawal allows him to convert what remains in his campaign treasury -- $417,000 as of June 30 -- to his legal defense.

Other Republican incumbents are struggling on the campaign trail to explain their relationship to Mr. Abramoff, notably Senator Conrad Burns of Montana, who is considered vulnerable in November because of his ties to the lobbyist.

Photos: Representative Bob Ney, Republican of Ohio, shown in the Capitol Hill subway in June, said yesterday that family concerns drove his decision not to seek re-election. (Photo by Lauren Victoria Burke/Associated Press)

Chart: ''G.O.P. Candidates Linked to Abramoff''
Rep. Tom DeLay, Tex.
LINK TO ABRAMOFF: Received thousands in campaign donations from Jack Abramoff, who has reportedly financed some of Mr. DeLay's overseas trips. Two of his former aides have pleaded guilty in the investigation.

POLITICAL IMPACT: Resigned from the House in June.

Rep. Bob Ney, Ohio
LINK TO ABRAMOFF: Accepted campaign money, meals and a trip to Scotland from Mr. Abramoff and placed remarks in The Congressional Record to help Mr. Abramoff buy SunCruz Casinos. His former chief of staff has pleaded guilty in the investigation.

POLITICAL IMPACT: Dropped his bid for re-election yesterday.

Rep. J. D. Hayworth, Ariz.
LINK TO ABRAMOFF: Received large campaign donations from Mr. Abramoff, his associates, his Indian tribe clients and a gambling cruise ship line that he owned. He is co-chairman of a Congressional group on Indian issues.

POLITICAL IMPACT: The independent Cook Political report rates these two races competitive, but still ''leaning Republican.''

Rep. Richard W. Pombo, Calif.
LINK TO ABRAMOFF: Received over $54,000 in campaign money from Mr. Abramoff and his clients. He is the chairman of the House Committee on Resources, which has primary jurisdiction over Indian affairs.

Rep. John T. Doolittle, Calif.
LINK TO ABRAMOFF: Received $50,000 in campaign contributions from Mr. Abramoff and his clients, and his wife was subpoenaed for financial records involving her work for Mr. Abramoff.

POLITICAL IMPACT: Mr. Doolittle is ''likely'' to win re-election, says the Cook report.

Sen. Conrad Burns, Mont.
LINK TO ABRAMOFF: Received $150,000 from Mr. Abramoff and his associates, more than any other lawmaker. Mr. Abramoff has been quoted as saying: ''Every appropriation we wanted from Senator Conrad Burns's committee, we got.''

POLITICAL IMPACT: Mr. Burns's seat is a ''toss up,'' says the Cook report. His approval has been sliding.

Ralph Reed, former lobbyist
LINK TO ABRAMOFF: Mr. Abramofff arranged for Mr. Reed to be paid over $5 million by Indian tribes that ran casinos to coordinate antigambling campaigns against competing

casinos.

POLITICAL IMPACT: Lost the Republican primary for lieutenant governor of Georgia

Correction: August 15, 2006, Tuesday
A chart with an article on Aug. 8 about the decision of Representative Bob Ney, an Ohio Republican entangled in the Jack Abramoff scandal, not to seek re-election included an erroneous reference to a source of campaign contributions for another member of Congress. Campaign records show that Representative J. D. Hayworth, an Arizona Republican, did not receive contributions from a gambling cruise-ship line formerly owned by Mr. Abramoff.